City council votes in favour of making King Street pilot project permanent
Posted April 16, 2019 7:16 am.
Last Updated April 16, 2019 1:31 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto city council has voted in favour of making the King Street pilot project a permanent fixture of the downtown core.
The motion passed by a vote of 22-3 with only Michael Ford, Ford, Stephen Holyday and Jim Karygiannis voting against the project.
“For decades, people in this city have been calling for improvements on King and finally today after years of work and a long pilot,” Coun. Joe Cressy said.
“Not only is King going to be become a lot better but council just demonstrated that we’re willing to take big bold steps to move people quickly.”
The future of the King Street pilot project was debated at city council on Tuesday, following the unanimous approval from the mayor’s executive committee to make the pilot permanent.
Streetcars have been running freely along King, between Bathurst Street and Jarvis Street, for a year-and-a-half now.
Daily weekday TTC ridership on the 504 streetcar line has increased 16 per cent — to 84,000 riders daily — since November of 2017.
“This was the most comprehensively evaluated transit project in the history of our city and it was, according to our staff and unprecedented success,” Cressy said.
“For a mere $1.5 million, we moved 12,000 new people on the King streetcar. That’s like building a subway on a weekend.”
However, many business owners said the project has led to a big dip in revenues, due to the restriction of vehicular traffic.
They wanted to see the rules on cars lifted during the evenings and weekends.
That motion was also debated at city council on Tuesday but fell by a vote of 19-6.
Mayor John Tory said he will continue working with King Street businesses to make sure the area remains a popular destination.
Tory said that city officials have studied the pilot all the way through and have continued to make adjustments. He added that the impact on drivers was “minimal” in terms of travel time.
The TTC said if the project was approved, there were some enhancements they would like to see, including improved stops.
